4 ms·
It is a mess -- one that confuses me every time I think about it. But the convention is that 12:00 PM is noon, and that 12:00 AM is midnight, right? This is ex
by pmdulaney 6y ago
It is a mess -- one that confuses me every time I think about it. But the convention is that 12:00 PM is noon, and that 12:00 AM is midnight, right?
This is exactly backwards.
Consider 11 AM. What does the 11 signify? 11 hours since midnight. 12 AM then should be 12 hours since midnight. "But 12:30 AM would then be in the afternoon, which surely should be PM!" Well, 12:30 AM would be 12 and a half hours after midnight just the same way that 11 AM is.
The REAL problem? Using 12 on the clock instead of 0. If we had 0 on the clock then 0 PM would be 0 hours past noon, the same way that 1 PM is 1 hour past noon. 0 AM would be 0 hours past midnight.
In fact, to make sense of whether noon is AM or PM in our current system, ask yourself: If we were to use 0 in place of 12, would AM or PM make sense?